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Finance Bill

My party is happy to support the amendment on the basis that it is always good to monitor progress on environmental matters. I suspect that our motivation for supporting it is rather different from that for which it was tabled. That motivation was to try to make a broader political point about the lack of effectiveness in environmental taxation, whereas my party and I are enthusiastic exponents of the potential benefits of such taxation. I suspect that the Conservative party's true motive for proposing the review is to make a broader case that the Government's policy on vehicle excise duty differentials has been ineffective in dealing with climate change. Therefore, the Conservatives will argue that we ought to conclude that the policy is ineffective and not one to which they are sympathetic, whereas I draw a different conclusion: if the Government's policy on vehicle excise duty differentials is not having the desired impact on CO2 emissions, it is a good reason for their policy to become more ambitious and the differentials wider to create greater incentives for people to drive fuel-efficient vehicles, rather than for the conclusion that I suspect many Conservative Members draw, which is that the bands should be narrower, because the policy has been deemed to be a failure.